Hey everyone, it’s Whatever Wednesdays again. I felt today was a good time to talk about the Dodgers since today is Game 7 of the World Series. So then… “How ‘Bout Them Dodgers?”

Stock Photo from: Pexels

First some background…

I grew up in Southern California, just outside of Anaheim. Being so close to California Angels (now Anaheim Angels), you might assume I was an Angels fan. However, that isn’t the case. While my parents weren’t really basball fans, me and my friends were. I grew up watching the Dodgers.

I still remember 1988 when the Dodgers has their miracle year of winning the World Series with Orel Hershiser and Kirk Gibson. There was that crazy Kirk Gibson homerun in Game 1 also, which you can see here:

I followed the Dodgers from through the Ramon Martinez days and the Mike Piazza days. I probably could have named everyone on the team back then. One of my favorite players from that time period was Brett Butler. He had a very interesting swing where he always looked like he was running toward first while swinging. Allowed him to beat out a lot of infield singles, but yet he still managed to launch the ball out of the park sometimes. Here’s an amazing catch he had back then:

However, I kind of stopped watching baseball on a regular basis when I went to college. There were so many other things I needed and wanted to do, that setting aside 3 hours to watch a ball game was kind of tough. I tried to catch the highlights when I could, but I lost touch with the Dodgers around the early 2000s.

So then what happened?

Well… life happened.

I went to medical school, residency, fellowship, and got my first (and second) jobs. I also got married and had two kids. It just wasn’t easy to catch the Dodgers play baseball for 3+ hours.

That’s not an excuse, it’s just what happened.

Some of you may call me a “fair weather fan” or a “bandwagoner”, but I’m really not. I always have been and always will be a Dodgers fan.

To be honest, whether they were in the World Series or not didn’t really change anything for me. However, one of my new colleagues at work is a Dodgers fan, so he’s kind of rekindled my love of the game.

I found something I had forgotten.

I really love baseball.

In my head, I had already planned for my daughter and son to play if they want to, and was ready to take them to their games and (hopefully) make them Dodgers fans. However, I guess I had forgotten all about the little boy still inside of me who wears Dodgers blue. I guess I skipped forward from “Dodgers fan” to “Dodgers dad” without realizing I can be both.

On a quick side note, my little town of Cypress, does have a little bit of baseball history itself. We actually qualified for the Little League World Series a few times.

Once in 1990 and again in 1998. We didn’t win, but to get that far was quite an accomplishment. Not bad for a little town outside Anaheim right?

So, predictions for tonight then?

It’s been a close series. Very interesting that both “aces” couldn’t bring home wins.

However, I give the advantage to the Dodgers for tonight. I think everything is pretty even, but home field advantage will be the difference here.

For Pitching

Yu Darvish has previously been dominant over the Astros, aside from his difficulties in Game 3. I believe in Yu.

Brandon Morrow, who previously had some difficulties in Houston, seems to have settled back in at home in LA. His fastball is back into the upper 90s and looked pretty dominant in Game 6.

Kenley Jansen, also had some difficulties, but he looked clean in Game 6 as well.